Archive for May, 2009|Monthly archive page

Self-worth may not be completely controllable by the person all the time. There may be occasions where a doubt cast by a superior on your ability may get to you. In the corporate world, one of the easy ways to manage people out is to doubt the candidate’s ability and make it known to them. Over time, they start to lose interest in the job and the performance takes a hit. Eventually they find a new role and move on. However, in this process, the candidate has suffered a huge lose of self-esteem. How they are perceived has a spiral effect on their performance. When the perception is good, even if the candidate does not have the skill-set, they go out of their way to provide good results. This is a positively reinforcing phenomena. On the other hand, doubts can kick start a downward spiral on self-worth. Once the candidate has moved on to a new role, it takes a lot of positive reinforcement to get the confidence level back up.

The best thing that either the corporate or the candidate can do is to have a candid talk about the situation and see how to address it. Worst case, they can decide to part ways. After all, it may be the best thing that happens to both parties. This approach saves a lot of emotional pain for the candidate and reduces potential lawsuit for managers.

Priya Natarajan, based in Silicon Valley, holds a unique position in the high-tech industry just like everyone else 🙂 She has decades of experience in making her own mistakes and learning from others’ mistakes. She is now blogging to give back to the community. She is also working on a ... Continue reading →